During a private two-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 31, 2003, he [President Bush] made clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he was determined to invade Iraq without the second resolution, or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons, said a confidential memo about the meeting written by Mr. Blair's top foreign policy adviser and reviewed by The New York Times. . . .

The memo indicates the two leaders envisioned a quick victory and a transition to a new Iraqi government that would be complicated, but manageable. Mr. Bush predicted that it was "unlikely there would be internecine warfare between the different religious and ethnic groups." Mr. Blair agreed with that assessment.

The memo also shows that the president and the prime minister acknowledged that no unconventional weapons had been found inside Iraq. Faced with the possibility of not finding any before the planned invasion, Mr. Bush talked about several ways to provoke a confrontation, including a proposal to paint a United States surveillance plane in the colors of the United Nations in hopes of drawing fire, or assassinating Mr. Hussein. . . .

{{Long, drawn-out sigh}} And I wonder sometimes why I let days' worth of the Times stack up before reading them. Of course, I've been sick, so I have an excuse.

I'm more or less back to normal, although apparently I've given it to rahirah. Sorry! I still have a cough and I feel run down, so I didn't get up and go to the gym today. Still, according to the bathroom scale I'm down to 160, which is a loss of five pounds in the last two weeks, so I'm content with that. I fit into my size-10 suit I bought last year in anticipation of losing that weight before I hit the plateau. People I barely know told me I looked good today. {beam}

This afternoon I heard a raven, but didn't see it. I hope that counts for good fortune as my previous raven sightings have.

I REALLY need to update my website (not that anyone actually goes there). I have to figure out how to use the software I had on the old hard drive before the reload.

It slid right off that Teflon AssHat some call our president. It absolutely amazes me what this guy gets away with. Clinton gets threatened with impeachment for a blow job, but King George can kill thousands of innocents and doesn't even have to suffer a breaking news alert.

Is is 2008 yet?

Hope you both beat those colds into submission -- nothin' worse than a spring cold :(